Railway vehicle provided with LIDAR devices

Abstract

A railway vehicle has two side walls facing each other to define a passenger compartment and a front end portion, which has two LIDAR devices arranged at the upper side corners of the front end portion; each of the LIDAR devices has a field of view of 360° about its axis, and such axis is oriented with a forward inclination and with a lateral outward inclination.

The invention claimed is: 
     
         1 . A railway vehicle comprising:
 a roof;   a passenger compartment for the transportation of passengers;   two side walls facing each other and defining said passenger compartment;   a front end portion comprising
 a) a lower front wall carrying a bumper to ensure safety in the event of a front impact against obstacles; 
 b) two LIDAR devices, which are arranged at the upper side corners of the front end portion and have respective axes, each extending upwards from a base surface of the respective LIDAR device; 
   
       each of said LIDAR devices being configured to have a field of view of 360° about the respective axis; 
       wherein each of said axes has:
 a lateral outward inclination so as to monitor the sides of the railway vehicle, and
 a forward inclination so as to remove possible blind spots at the side ends of the bumper and in front of the bumper 
 wherein: 
 
 for each of said axes, the forward inclination has an angle between 0° and 45° measured about a vertical axis and with respect to a vertical plane that is orthogonal to a longitudinal axis of the vehicle; 
 for each of said axes, the lateral outward inclination has an angle between 40° and 50° measured with respect to the vertical axis in a plane where said axis and said vertical axis lie; 
 each LIDAR device is configured to scan the field of view between an upper boundary and a lower boundary, which form a given scanning angle between each other. 
 
     
     
         2 . The railway vehicle according to  claim 1  wherein, for each of said axes, the forward inclination has an angle between 0° and 15° measured about a vertical axis and with respect to a vertical plane that is orthogonal to a longitudinal axis of the vehicle. 
     
     
         3 . The railway vehicle according to  claim 1 , wherein said scanning angle is equal to 90°. 
     
     
         4 . The railway vehicle according to  claim 1 , wherein, for each said LIDAR device, the lower boundary has a directrix line that is substantially coincident with, or parallel to, the vertical axis. 
     
     
         5 . The railway vehicle according to  claim 1 , wherein at least part of each LIDAR device is arranged at a height that is lower than an upper end point of said roof. 
     
     
         6 . The railway vehicle according to  claim 5 , wherein said LIDAR devices are completely arranged within the body gauge of the vehicle. 
     
     
         7 . The railway vehicle according to  claim 1 , wherein at least one portion of each side wall is tangent respectively to an ideal vertical longitudinal plane; and wherein said base surfaces have respective centre points that are arranged horizontally between said ideal vertical longitudinal planes. 
     
     
         8 . The railway vehicle according to  claim 1 , wherein said front end portion comprises actuator means which can be controlled to move said LIDAR devices longitudinally between a forward position and a rear position. 
     
     
         9 . The railway vehicle according to  claim 1 , wherein said front end portion comprises at least one front LIDAR device, which is arranged at said lower front wall and is configured to scan a field of view with an angle lower than 180° about its axis. 
     
     
         10 . The railway vehicle according to  claim 9 , wherein said front end portion comprises two front LIDAR devices arranged so as to have respective fields of view, each rotated outwardly so as to be pointed towards respective opposite sides in front of the vehicle.